Thursday, December 06, 2007

According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Head_cent the Indian Head cent was designed by James Barton Longacre. It is rumored that he used his daughter Sarah as his model for the Indian likeness, but, that information has not been authenticated in United States Mint files.

No sources given, but from:http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=geneslady&id=I08564

Sarah Longacre married John Foster Keen. He died 12 AUG 1891 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The model supposedly was Eliza Longacre, the daughter of James Barton Longacre, Engraver at the Philadelphia Mint. (The US Treasury website says there are no records to verify this). On May 10, 1866, she married Horatio C. Wood, a highly distinguished physician. He died in 1920 in Philadelphia. Sources: Coin Identification Table, coins.about.com; US Treasury Fact Sheet on Indian Head Coin, http://www.treas.gov/education/fact-sheets/currency/indian-head.shtml; US Census, Philadelphia, PA, 1850, 1860, & 1870; National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoir of Horace C. Wood, http://books.nap.edu/html/biomems/hwood33.pdf